


in the face of those forces

by factorielle



Series: KiKasa Week [4]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, First Meetings, Gen, Hospitals, Medical Inaccuracies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-19
Updated: 2014-07-19
Packaged: 2018-02-09 14:15:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1986063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/factorielle/pseuds/factorielle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Wherein Kise only started playing basketball in his third year of middle school, and Kaijou still scouted Teikou's small forward.</p><blockquote>
  <p>Kise closes his eyes, smiling despite himself. "You're a very serious guy, aren't you…" he heard the guy's name earlier, when they were playing, but he had no expectation of it mattering and made no effort to remember.</p>
  <p>"Kasamatsu Yukio," the guy says. "Cap— Former captain of Kaijou High's basketball team."</p>
</blockquote>
            </blockquote>





	in the face of those forces

Kise sees the blow coming, but Kaijou's noisy center is framing him from the other side and there's nowhere to dodge.

The impact makes him stumble but for a moment he thinks he's fine, and then he falls backward, vision swimming before he's even hit the ground.

The last thing he sees is the face of unadulterated hatred under a pair of thick eyebrows; the last thing he thinks is _what did I ever do to_ you _?_

* * *

He was unconscious for most of it, they tell him later, and it might actually have been better that way; certainly he can still feel a dull throbbing threatening to pierce through the layer of painkillers. _You should sleep if you can_ , the nurse tells him, and he tries, but forcing sleep is not one of Kise's many skills.

"Are you awake?" someone asks, a lot less gently than anyone in the hospital has so far.

Kise has to blink a few times before he can focus on his visitor, and he might not have recognized him if not for the helpful label on the sports bag he's carrying. Also, the eyebrows.

"Congratulations on winning the championship game," he says, remembering at the last second that it's a bad idea to try and sit up by himself. Luckily, the bed comes with a controller, and with the flip of a switch Kise feels himself rise to something resembling a sitting position.

Kaijou's point guard frowns even harder, which Kise had not thought was possible. "We forfeited," he says. "Your teammates didn't tell you?"

Shrugging is not a good idea either, so Kise just shakes his head. "I haven't seen them. Coach will probably come by tomorrow or the day after, I guess."

And there's that expression again, the piercing rage that made Kise want to scramble away even while he was in the middle of passing out on the court. "What the hell kind of team is that?" he demands, and Kise is pretty sure it's not meant for him, but he answers anyway.

"They lost because of me," he says. "Why would they want to come here?"

"They lost," the guy spits, "because my teammate _ruptured your spleen_." There's so much disgust in his voice that Kise wants to tell him that it's only basketball, a pastime, and there'll be no lasting damage anyway. He'll have to cut back on modeling for a little while. It's hardly the end of the world. "And I let him."

Kise closes his eyes, smiling despite himself. "You're a very serious guy, aren't you…" he heard the guy's name earlier, when they were playing, but he had no expectation of it mattering and made no effort to remember.

"Kasamatsu Yukio," the guy says. "Cap— Former captain of Kaijou High's basketball team."

"Kasamatsu," Kise repeats slowly. It's not a bad name. "Shougo-kun and I have a history." Not that he ever figured out why the guy hated him so much, when Kise had barely entered Teikou's basketball team in time to sit on the bench during the summer tournament in his third year.

"I don't care," Kasamatsu says, cutting short any desire Kise might have had to reminisce. "Haizaki has been suspended from the team, pending investigation by the Federation. But I doubt he'd come back, anyway."

"Wow," Kise says, honestly baffled. He's heard the joke in middle school and high school both: it takes a player's written declaration of intent to grind his shoe into his opponent's face on the court to make the Federation pay any kind of attention to rough play, and then only if he's clearly specified which foot he plans to use. "I really didn't deserve that much effort." Especially from complete strangers.

"It was the right thing to do," Kasamatsu says, voice like steel. A _super_ serious guy, then, who's just sacrificed his last high school tournament over someone who picked up basketball barely a year ago for lack of anything better to do, who would have dropped it in a second if anyone had suggested he should start showing up at practice more often. It's absurd. It's silly. Every experience Kise had ever had with basketball tells him to laugh at this righteous fool, both for caring about the sport and for throwing away his last chance at it so easily.

He finds his eyes filling with tears instead.

"That's," he starts, trying to blink them away. They roll down his cheeks instead and he finds no words to follow up that wouldn't sound too pathetic.

Kasamatsu is still looking in his general direction, but half a meter to Kise's right. How thoughtful. "That's all I came to say," he says. "We wish you a rapid recovery."

He waits a few seconds for an answer Kise isn't capable of giving him and then he turns away stiffly, heads for the door. Panic overrides whatever it is that is still making Kise cry.

"Wait," he calls, and scrambles for words when Kasamatsu does. He swallows loudly. "Next time, bring me something to eat?"

Kasamatsu doesn't turn, and Kise would beat himself up if Haizaki hadn't done such an excellent job of it already. How pathetic is he, to cling so hard to someone he's never met before today, who only visited because he felt he had a duty to? What is Kise even expecting from a repeat visit?

"Sweet or savory?" Kasamatsu asks, and Kise still doesn't understand, but it looks like he'll get another chance to.

"Sweet," he says, and "thank you."

**Author's Note:**

> For KiKasa Week: Day 6, Alternate Universe  
> Title from Dollhouse: "We make choices. I'm well aware that there are forces beyond our control, but even in the face of those forces, we make choices. And then we live with them."


End file.
